Page:Karl Radek - Proletarian Dictatorship and Terrorism - tr. Patrick Lavin (1921).djvu/66

59 Guards. The proletariat know that they cannot compel the peasants to plow the fields; they know that, in the long run the peasants will only do that where they recognize that they will have better conditions under the rule of the proletariat than under that of the bourgeoisie. But it is essential that, by the overthrow of the bourgeoisie the peasants should be cured of their belief that the bourgeoisie alone are able to govern; and they will discard this belief not only through the fight against the bourgeoisie, but in many cases, even by the fight against the rich peasantry. Whoever has studied the history of revolutions, not from books like Kautsky's, but from great and original if also reactionary bourgeois sources, will have no hesitation in agreeing with Ranke when he says in his history of the English Revolution that great things must always be shaped by a strong will. The meaning of terrorism in the revolution is that the revolutionary class, even in the hour of greatest danger, shrinks from nothing in order to accomplish its will, and defends itself with all its might.

The working class will only acquire this will after long experience, many struggles, defeats and victories. As a subject class, descended from the subject sections of the pre-capitalistic historical period, as a class in whose veins flows the blood of those accustomed for centuries to obey the will of others, the working class today has not that iron will to dominate which has been so highly developed by, for example, the Prussian Junkers and the English bourgeoisie. Therefore the fight must be all the keener against all those elements which are led to dissipate their energies by wavering, vacillating and carelessness. The proletariat who strive for equality of all human beings, have no longing for dictatorship with terrorism, and do not themselves choose that tactical course.

As soon as the situation permits of it they will forego it. In the process of the Socialist revolution they will always seek to discover whether this or that section of the bourgeoisie can be induced to join with them in the exercise of power, whether the circle of those possessing equal rights is not capable of